5 Practical, Purposeful Paths To A Fresh Start!

Ready for a fresh start? A different kind of 'spring cleaning,' perhaps? Here are 5 practical, purposeful ways to help you begin anew!

I can’t quite explain it, but something magical happens when I clear out a cupboard, declutter my desk drawers, or even delete podcast episodes that have been sitting in my queue for months. When I am about to embark on a new project or begin a new goal, I will often start by clearing my space a bit, and the process almost always clears my mind a bit, too.

I sometimes even look for things to declutter if I’m feeling at all out of sorts, knowing that a newfound clarity and refreshed energy - or at least a bit of mental calming - will likely appear.

Does anyone else experience this? Or is this one of those odd Christi quirks?

As signs of spring begin to appear here in the midwest U.S. (with the occasional blizzard still popping up, of course!), many of my coaching clients are craving that fresh start energy, and I am right there with them. If you feel similarly, this article can help you take advantage of this fresh start desire in five practical, purposeful ways.

First, a bit of food for thought:

Any Time Is A Good Time For A Fresh Start … Or Is It?

We often associate fresh starts with certain milestones or times of year: New Year’s Day, birthdays, a move, a Monday. And research shows that these can prove helpful for our motivation towards the change, in large part because they provide a sort of dividing line between the ‘old’ us and the fresh, clean slate ahead of us. Taking advantage of that motivation can help us succeed with our new goal or change, especially in the early stages.

But there are also times when fresh starts aren’t necessarily the best course of action. Katy Milkman, behavioral scientist and professor at Wharton, dedicates a chapter of her excellent book, How To Change, to the topic of fresh starts. As a longtime lover of fresh starts (and, often, complete overhauls) myself, I was particularly intrigued by the section titled “The Downside of Fresh Starts.”

In it, Milkman discusses research findings showing that while a fresh start is often an excellent approach, this is not always the case. If you are already on a roll with a habit that you want to continue, implementing a reset-type of approach may actually work against you. “[W]hile fresh starts are helpful for kick-starting change, they can also be unwelcome disruptors of well-functioning routines,” Milkman shares. “Anyone seeking to maintain good habits should beware.”

So, as we jump into five ways to implement a fresh start below, keep that in mind: If you are already rockin’ and rollin’ with your habits, your fresh start may benefit you a bit later, so feel free to return to this article when the timing is right. In the meantime, keep on keepin’ on!

For the rest of us, let’s get some fresh-start energy and action going!

Five Pathways To A Fresh Start

1. Clean Up Unfinished Business.

Personally, I have discovered that one of my biggest energy drains takes the form of unfinished business: Projects not quite done, to-do’s partially complete, even the list of bookmarked articles that I haven’t yet gotten around to reading. The ‘almost done but not quite’ feeling often weighs me down more than something I haven’t even started yet!

If you experience this too, try dedicating time to finishing up some of that unfinished business. One way to go about this is to essentially make a list of all the not-quite-done projects and set aside an afternoon or a weekend to knock out as many as possible. I veer toward the all-or-nothing, so these ‘GSD Days’ as I call them (Get Stuff Done!) are incredibly satisfying.

If your calendar won’t allow for such an afternoon, you can go about this in another fashion, such as scheduling three of those items per week until they’re done, or listing them in order from easiest/quickest to more involved and tackling them in spare moments as you go.

2. Visualize The ‘After.’

You’ve probably seen, and been inspired by, before and after photos of room makeovers or clutter cleanups. Seeing the end result can provide a great motivation boost, even if you’re viewing someone else’s space.

If your fresh start involves physical clutter, you can take actual before and after photos to benefit from that boost. If your fresh start involves non-visible aspects of life, however, you can adapt this a bit and imagine what you will feel like when you’ve completed the task.

Let me give you a rather embarrassing example from just a couple weeks ago: For as long as I possibly could, I had been putting off a phone call that I needed to make. I knew the call would be awkward, I didn’t want to make it, and I even had some fear around it. I procrastinated for … well, let’s just say a ridiculous amount of time.

Finally, I knew I just had to make the call. So, I visualized myself after the call. I imagined the relief I would feel one hour from now, the joy I would experience in checking this off the list, the satisfaction in completing something that felt difficult. Then, I took a deep breath, dialed the number, and made the call.

I am not joking when I say that the entire call took six minutes. Six minutes! Yes, it was an awkward six minutes, but still. So, six minutes later, I felt all of those benefits above, and I took a mental note to not procrastinate so long next time.

3. Let Your Fresh Start Benefit Others.

Raise your hand if you’ve been known to pack up a trunk-load of donations, only to drive around with them in your car for the next seven weeks.

(Please don’t tell me my hand is the only one raised…)

The best cure I’ve found for this - and also for more easily letting go of more and more items that I might be on the fence about - is considering who will benefit from what I give away. When I think of all the people rebuilding their homes and lives - whether due to natural disaster, economic hardship, or any other reason - it’s all the impetus I need to hop in the car and share those donations with Habitat for Humanity, Dress For Success, Goodwill, or the various other organizations doing good work for so many.

And for the readers among us, sharing the wealth by placing books in Little Free Libraries around town feels a little like being a bookish Santa Claus. Highly recommend!

Side note: If you find that you also have an abundance of reusable gift bags, consider putting some of your donations in those. It can feel lovely to share your gifts in such a way, plus the gift bags could perhaps be reused or resold for added benefit.

4. ‘Eat That Frog.’

I first heard this rather gross, but oddly effective, phrase 15-20 years ago when I read Brian Tracy’s book of the same name. In a nutshell, the premise is that if you have a difficult task that you know you need to complete today, do it first thing in the morning - or as soon as humanly possible - and be done with it. That way, you’re not spending mental energy all day long thinking about, dreading, and getting worked up over the task.

This lines up with my phone call example above, and you can easily blend this suggestion with #2 (visualize the ‘after’) for an added push. I feel like Brian Tracy might suggest to not even spend time with the visualizing, however - just do it and be done with it. Both routes have merit, so see what aligns with your personality best and go from there.

5. Don’t Rule Out Temporary Fixes.

Now, most of the time, I aim for lasting and sustainable solutions - healing the wound rather than just putting a bandage on it, so to speak. But in certain situations, there’s something to be said for quick fixes. A few examples that come to mind:

• Remove all but one of the books currently on your nightstand and put them elsewhere. Yes, you still have the stack of books waiting to be read, but they’re not all staring at you every time you walk into the room, reminding you how far behind you are. You can then bring them back - hopefully one by one - on an as needed (or as read-ed, ha!) basis.

• Delete any unlistened-to podcast episodes older than a month (or whatever time frame makes sense for you). You can always redownload them, and the clean slate feeling of a lighter podcast queue can oddly work wonders with your mindset.

• Put everything on your desk into a cardboard box. Experience what it’s like to work in a clean and clutter-free environment. You can pull stuff back out on an as-needed basis. (You can also do something similar with your wardrobe, kitchen counters, and other areas in your home or workspace.)

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My Mom was a beautiful seamstress and quilter, and she used to half-jokingly say how sometimes she would flip through a quilting magazine, admire all of the ideas and examples and photos of handmade quilts, and by the time she turned the final page she practically felt like she had made a quilt herself! :-)

I must admit I am feeling a bit of that after writing this article. It would be easy for me to hit ‘publish’ and not take any further action toward my own fresh start. But I promise you, I am implementing my own ideas here, and by the end of the month I predict I’ll really be experiencing that fresh start energy. And at that time, I’ll plan to open the windows wide and let the literal fresh air join my figurative fresh air.

As long as it’s not blizzarding again that day, which in the midwest, you just never know! :-)

Which tip above speaks to you the most? What others would you add? Please share your ideas in the comments so we can all benefit from your fresh-start insights! And feel free to ask any questions as well - I appreciate you being here and am happy to chat.

Christi Hegstad, PhD, PCC, and self-proclaimed book nerd, is a certified coach who helps achievers work with meaning, live with purpose, and reach bold + difference-making goals. Feel free to share your questions, comments, or topic/book suggestions below or via email to readingandpurpose (at) gmail (dot) com.

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